#2523 Decompression issues using Windows 11

[Cyber-Supreme]

I find 7zip has extremely slow decompression rate as it takes a very long time to decompress archives that have many images. I have had to switch to WinRAR for decompression until this issue is resolved.
I'm not sure if I'm allowed to attach large files so here is a link to a public domain file as an example:
GitHub Google Fonts Archive

When I attempt to decompress this file with 7zip, it slows down almost to a stand still for image files.
I have to abort after letting it attempt the decompression for hours.
However, WinRAR on the same machine decompresses the entire archive in less than 20 seconds.

Here is a link of other people recently reporting the exact same problem using Windows 11:
Microsoft reporting page

[Igor Pavlov]

Are sure that you used 7-Zip?
You have several way to extract files with 7-Zip.
Select zip file and call context menu "7-Zip/Extract".

[Cyber-Supreme]

Yes & I am using the latest version.
Did you attempt to decompress my example?

Download the archive from the link that I posted, navigate to the file, right click & opt 7-Zip -> Extract Files. Please test this out for yourself.

[Igor Pavlov]

Try "Test archive" command.
And then try "Extract" command again.
What antivirus software do you use?
Do you extract to internal NTFS volume?

[Cyber-Supreme]

Test archive displays "no errors".
I use AVG Antivirus & all my volumes are NTFS including where the file resides (main ~ Windows C drive).

[Igor Pavlov]

Try "Test archive" command.
And then try "Extract" command again.
compare execution time of these commands.
If it's still slow, disable AVG Antivirus, and try again.

[Cyber-Supreme]

Here are the results:

Testing the archive shows no errors & took 4 seconds.

Decompression with AVG antirvirus enabled took 08:34:23 (over 8.5 hours).
Decompression with AVG antivirus disabled took 00:00:33 (33 seconds) .

Both decompression processes showed multiple symbolic link errors.

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Please note that WinRAR decompressed the archive in 31 seconds & no errors (with AVG enabled).

[Igor Pavlov]

please compress extracted files to zip and try to extract new zip again with AVG antirvirus enabled.
Now it will be without symbolic links.
I want to know why it's slow with AVG.
So we will have two similar zip archives:
one with "symbolic link errors".
second without "symbolic link errors".

If some extraction process is slow (more than 10 minues), don't wait for finish. Just stop it.

[Cyber-Supreme]

This test environment: Windows 11 ~ AVG Antivirus previously deactivated & then activated.

With AVG enabled, I compressed the archive & then decompressed the archive successfully.
It only took 26 seconds for the decompression with no reported errors.

I am going to report back with some other data because I noticed that the behavior is different when AVG was started at boot & compared to being deactivated & then activated again.

I just tried to decompress the original archive & it showed the same errors but took over 51 seconds for the decompression of the original archive from GitHub. I want to attempt your test request with AVG after boot up of the OS.

[Igor Pavlov]

Also there is option:
7-Zip / Tools / Options / 7-Zip / Propagate Zone.Id Stream.
What value is set in that option in your system?

[Cyber-Supreme]

I'm seeing different behavior now which is strange because I was getting the same behavior before my original report.
After resetting my PC, AVG Antivirus had recent pending updates that were put in place which may have something to do with it. I just got that AVG "reset PC to update" notice earlier today so this is not something that was pending when I started this report/ticket.

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This test environment: Windows 11 ~ AVG Antivirus (enabled) after Windows PC boot up & the AVG Nov.18/19 update.

Decompression of the original archive showed the same errors but only took 43 seconds.

Decompression of the archive that was compressed with 7zip only took 27 seconds.

The "Propagate Zone.Id Stream" option has been set to "Yes" for all previous & current tests (I have never adjusted this setting).

[Igor Pavlov]

"Propagate Zone.Id Stream" is default to "* No".
So probably you changed it. Or some external program (like antivirus) could change it.
That "Propagate Zone.Id Stream" is additional reason of complexity.
When you download file from internet, the browser writes hidden Zone.Identifier stream for that file. And
If "Propagate Zone.Id Stream" is set to Yes, 7-Zip creates hidden Zone.Identifier stream for each extracted file.

You can remove Zone.Identifier stream from file. Select original zip archive file in 7-Zip, call menu command File / Alternate Streams. Select Zone.Identifier file, and press Delete command. Maybe it will be faster for extraction without Zone.Identifier streams.
Or you can change the option "Propagate Zone.Id Stream" to "* No".

[Cyber-Supreme]

I've made the change to that setting ("No") and decompressed the same archive in 26 seconds.
If that same behavior arises again in the future, I will file another report.
Hopefully your helpful instructions fixed everything up.

Thanks a bunch!